On a day when the big stars failed to shine as brightly as they would have liked to, Srabani Nanda’s disarming smile lit up the Mangala Stadium.
The Odisha girl completed a fine sprint double on the final day of the Federation Cup on Monday.
Having qualified for next month’s Asian championship at Wuhan in the shorter sprint, she was determined to make it in the 200m too. She did that, with a time of 23.67s, pushing teammate Dutee Chand to the second spot again. It was also her personal best.
“Yes, it was a nice time, but I was aiming for something like 23.50s,” she said. “As this is my first double at the senior National level, I don’t have regrets.”
Good, but not…Arpinder Singh does, though. The triple jumper, one of the most promising youngsters, could only come up with a best of 16.13m but that was good enough for the gold.
The National record-holder and bronze medallist at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games failed to meet the qualifying mark, though he received one of the loudest cheers from a goodly crowd. “Things didn’t work out for me today,” he said. “The humidity was also a problem.”
Another talented youngster, Siddhanth Thingalaya, too, was in for disappointment. He could only clock 13.92s in the 110m hurdles and struggled to complete the race.
“I had pulled a hamstring after the fifth hurdle,” said Siddhanth, who had completed the qualifying mark at the heats with a 13.82.
Stars like Arokia Rajiv and M.R. Poovamma, who was delighted to have run in front of her home crowd, booked their tickets for Wuhan in the men’s and women’s 400m respectively.
Also meeting the qualification mark were the gold and silver medallists in the women’s 100m hurdles — G. Gayathri and P. Deepkia. As did Purnima Hembram and Liksy Joseph in decathlon. From the men’s 200m, Dharambir Singh also made it, clocking 20.87s.
The day also saw G. Lakshmanan, L. Surya and Jinson Johnson completing the double. Shot-putter Inderjeet Singh, who attained Olympic qualification, and Srabani were named the best athletes of the meet.
The overall championship went to Army, which also came first in the men’s section. Kerala triumphed in the women’s section.
The results: Men: 200m: 1. Dharambir Singh (Har) 20.87s, 2. Manikanda Arumugam (TN) 21.20, 3. Parveen Kumar (Har) 21.59. 400m: Arokia Rajiv (Army) 46.24s, 2. V. Sajin (Air Force) 46.94, A. Dharun (TN) 47.25. 1500m: 1. Jinson Johsnon (Army) 3:46.98s, 2. Sandeep Kumar (Army) 3:47.71, 3. Ajay Kumar Saroj (Asm) 3:48.86. 10,000m: 1. G. Lakshmanan (Army) 29:49.91s, 2. T. Gopi (Army) 29:52.26, 3. Kheta Ram (Army) 29:53.18. 110m hurdles: 1. Sidhanth Thingalaya (ONGC) 13.92s, 2. J. Surendhar (TN) 14.17, 3. K. Prem Kumar (Tel) 14.26. 4x100m relay: 1. Army 41.08, 2. Tamil Nadu 41.18, 3. Karnataka 41.40. 4x400m: 1. Army 3:11.48s, 2. Air Force 3:11.99, 3. Haryana 3:16.06. Triple jump: 1. Arpinder Singh (ONGC) 16.13m, 2. S.N. Mohammed Salahuddin (Tata) 15.86, 3. U. Karthik (Air Force) 15.82. Discus: 1. Arjun Singh (Tata) 58.51m, 2. Dharamraj Yadav (Army) 58.41, 3. Kirpal Singh (ONGC) 53.54. Team championship: 1. Army 123.5 points, 2. Tamil Nadu 48.
Women: 200m: 1. Srabani Nanda (Odi) 23.67s, 2. Dutee Chand (Odi) 24.52, 3 M.G. Padmini (Kar) 24.69. 400m: 1. M.R. Poovamma (ONGC) 53.41s, 2. Anu Raghavan (Ker) 54.27, 3. Tintu Luka (Ker) 54.31. 1500m: 1. Sushma Devi (Har) 4:27.50s, 2. P.U. Chithra (Ker) 4:27.94, 3. Shipra Sarkar (Ben) 4:28.62. 10,000m: 1. L. Surya (TN) 34:42.05s, 2. Sanjeevini Jadhav (Mah) 34:52.91, Swati Gadhave 35:53.70. 100m hurdles: 1. G. Gayathri (TN) 13.67s, 2. P. Deepika (TN) 13.76, 3. Meghana Shetty (Kar) 13.88. 4x100m: 1. Karnataka 47.20s, 2. Tamil Nadu 47.65, 3. Maharashtra 47.74. 4x400m: 1.Bengal 3:46.08s, 2. Tamil Nadu 3:47.84, 3. Kerala 4:02.35. Heptathlon: 1. Purnima Hembram (Odi) 5462 points, 2. Liksy Joseph (Ker) 5458, 3. Niksy Joseph (Ker) 5290. Team championship: 1. Kerala 86 points, 2. Karnataka 68.
Overall championship: 1. Army 123.5 points, 2. Tamil Nadu 114.
